6 Smart Moving Tips for Long-Distance Moves

Moving is more than just relocating your luggage. A new environment, surroundings, and people are a lifetime experience and a long-awaited milestone. But excitement can transform into a heavy-hearted experience if your move is not smooth. Here, planning is the most fundamental requirement for a worry-free moving experience, especially if you’re moving to Phoenix, Arizona. According to stats from 2022, around 85,000 residents were added to Phoenix, making it one of the most sought-after cities for people looking to change places.

But before anything, contemplate the basics of moving, including an adjustable budget and total timeframe for relocation and unpacking. Reconsider whether you can do it yourself or need professional shippers. If you decide on expert movers, ensure you research and weigh multiple quotes. In short, leave enough time for the whole process of packing, moving, and unpacking.

The following sections explore tips for a stress-free, cost-effective, and smooth moving process.

1. Search for a reliable moving service

Relocating to a new location is exciting, but the struggle until one settles is hectic and challenging. It’s more exhausting for people who have no experience, especially when moving to big cities like Phoenix. So, why not get help from expert movers to ensure a stress-free move to Phoenix, AZ? Contact different service providers, get quotes, compare prices, fix a packing date, and leave the headache to them. If you need some guidance, one such option is Coleman Allied movers. They’re one of the best long distance movers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Locally owned shippers like Coleman Allied also offer customized packaging services at affordable prices. They have temperature-controlled storage and shipment containers to store and move delicate and perishable items without causing damage. So, check their website and fill out a form to get a free cost quotation. Even if their services do not match your requirements, you can get an idea and negotiate with other shippers for similar services.

2. Plan a moving timeframe

Moving everything at once can be challenging if you move your residential stuff to another location or new home. Packing and unpacking stuff is hectic and time-consuming, especially if you have other responsibilities. But even if you accommodate and schedule, packing and unpacking everything in a day is impossible. A packed schedule like that will only cause more fatigue, mishaps, and expenditure. That is why even professional movers require some days to plan and move your luggage.

So, plan well in advance. And allow yourself at least a few days to relocate everything between the locations. Start packing and moving the most necessary things in the first batch and relocate the remaining luggage as viable. And if you go for paid services, choose local shippers. Locally owned shippers have better know-how about the geospatial and socio-political situations of specific states, cities, and neighborhoods, so they can give approximate estimates of shipment timeframe and save you from needless apprehension.

3. Sort out unnecessary stuff

Failing to decide and categorize the most necessary stuff makes moving more difficult and stressful. We have so much attachment to everything in our homes that we cannot abandon anything behind. But object attachment is irrationality when your residence is not permanent. You do not need to pick everything from your previous home while moving to a new home.

Even if you pack and move luggage like furniture and heavy electronics like refrigerators and air conditioners, it is impossible to prevent scratches and dents. Even minor scratches can cause leakage in gas piping and render your appliances useless. It is better to toss, sell, or donate items like old books, kitchen appliances, heavy furniture, or clothes and make new purchases in your new home. Decluttering will not only minimize your moving expenditure but also create room for new items. Downsizing or decluttering essential items is a thought-provoking opportunity to organize your life.

4. Spend time packing carefully

Packing luggage requires skill and know-how, such as what packing material, boxes, wrappers, or adhesives you need to pack and move delicate or rugged things like glassware, electronics, and furniture. Moving costly, antique, fragile items or even furniture is only cost-effective if there is no damage during the relocation process. It is useless if relocation and maintenance cost you more than the price of your luggage. Hence, pack everything carefully.

Find firm and durable boxes and warp your luggage with jerk-absorbing cushions, bubble wraps, paper, or old clothes to minimize scratches, cracks, and damage. Organize stuff into categories before tossing everything randomly. And for that, you need different packing materials and strategies for items like kitchenware, clothes, bedding, appliances, or furniture. Once you have packed everything, mark boxes and inform your shipper about fragile items.

5. Prepare a checklist and mark packages

Once you sort out and pack everything, ensure you know which boxes contain what and if you have wrapped every essential item. Sometimes, moving companies ship your stuff in batches rather than delivering everything in one day. Road repairs, blocks, and customs checks can cause delays if your shipment is transboundary. In such cases, how will you know if you have received everything before unpacking or without reconfirming from the shipper? A better alternative is to keep a count of the boxes and packages at your end.

So, prepare a checklist and mark all the boxes by category and your identification. This way, you can trace received and pending luggage packages without keeping calculations headache by cross-checking your inventory list rather than opening every box to reconfirm your items.

6. DIY where possible

Since relocating luggage is expensive, tossing or selling even the necessary stuff is an unavoidable option for many. But doing pre-packing and organization at your end can manage your total moving budget without causing last-moment headaches. For instance, you can start by sorting out and downsizing your luggage.

Explore and study some websites to get ideas on organizing and packing stuff yourself. Ask your friends and family members to give a helping hand in organizing, cleaning, wrapping, packaging, and labeling luggage. Likewise, get help while unpacking and reorganizing once you have shipped everything. Alternatively, doing it might cost less, but it can take more than a professional mover and shipper. So, spare some time in the relocation process. But even in strict timelines, you can break down the workload and leave tough or time-consuming chores to the experts.

Conclusion

Moving your luggage over a long distance is hectic and daunting if you do not have prior experience and know-how. But it is not something undoable. Follow a systematic process like what you need to move, when, how, and whether you need the assistance of a professional shipper. You must sort out such preliminary requirements yourself, even if you hire a professional inventory mover. This way, everything else becomes manageable.